Consider the following situation - checkout line in a counter. The details are shown as below:
i. One check-out line
ii. The serving time for every customer is one minute but they may have to wait in line before being served
iii. The customers between zero and five will join the line
iv. Simulate the flow of the customers
Write pseudocode that simulates the flow of the customers through the line during a time period n minutes long.
[Hint: You need to use First-In-First-Out queue implementation. If you make any assumption, please justify/describe it].
To simulate the flow of customers through the checkout line, we can use a First-In-First-Out (FIFO) queue implementation. The pseudocode below outlines how this can be done:
1. Initialize an empty queue called "line" to represent the checkout line.
2. Set a variable "time" to 0 to keep track of the elapsed time.
3. Set a variable "n" to the desired time period for the simulation.
4. Create a loop that continues until the elapsed time reaches "n":
a. Increment the time variable by 1 to simulate the passage of time.
b. Generate a random number "num_customers" between 0 and 5 to determine the number of customers joining the line at this time.
c. For each customer in the range from 1 to "num_customers":
i. Add the customer to the end of the queue.
d. If the queue is not empty:
i. Remove the customer at the start of the queue and serve them for 1 minute.
5. Output any relevant information, such as the number of customers served during the simulation.
Note: The assumptions made in this pseudocode are that the serving time for each customer is fixed at one minute, and there is only one checkout line. Additionally, the range of customers joining the line is between 0 and 5, as stated in the given details.
Here's the line simulation pseudocode:
```
queue line = empty
time = 0
n = desired_simulation_time
while time < n:
time = time + 1
num_customers = generate_random_number_between(0, 5)
for i = 1 to num_customers:
add_customer_to_queue(line)
if line is not empty:
serve_customer(line)
output number_of_customers_served
```
Please note that the specific implementation details, such as generating random numbers and serving customers, are not provided in the pseudocode as they may vary depending on the programming language being used.